Sick Pig Problems

A pound of bacon now costs more than $6. That’s a record increase from $3.86 a pound four years ago.

What’s driving this spike?

Blame Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus. The disease, known as PEDv, is rattling the pork industry after claiming over 10 percent of the U.S. pig population. Nearly all infected piglets suffer severe dehydration and die within the first few weeks of their life.

Though the illness doesn’t threaten human health, there are other reasons to cut back on pork.

Ever since the outbreak began in 2013, farmers have been scrambling to find some kind of solution. One farm in Owensboro, Kentucky, fittingly named Iron Maiden after the medieval torture device, made headlines earlier this year for resorting to a stomach-churning concoction dubbed the “piglet smoothie.”

The Humane Society brought this supposed treatment to light during an undercover investigation. Also called “feedback” or “controlled exposure,” it involves liquefying the guts of dead baby pigs and feeding them to pregnant sows in the hopes of stimulating immunity. Of course, these sows were probably the piglets’ own mothers.

Industrialized, force-fed pig cannibalism may sound like a radical and desperate measure. Yet it hasn’t prevented farms from using this method in the past to combat livestock diseases. Unsanitary feeding conditions on factory farms are pretty common and cattle are sometimes fed chicken litter — which can contain traces of ground-up bone meal from beef.

The USDA just authorized a new vaccine to fight the epidemic which could put an end to the piglet-pureeing market.

But revelations like this tell more than a sick story — they offer crucial insight into the countless, unseen cruelties taking place on factory farms every day.

Well, the Humane Society found pigs at Iron Maiden confined to gestation crates so small they were nearly immobilized. Given little more than inches to move their whole lives, their muscles quickly atrophied and they developed blisters all over their bodies. Other abuse included workers beating, punching, kicking, and hurling piglets against walls.

No state or federal agency has responded yet to Iron Maiden’s immoral practices with punitive actions and the farm is still fully operational, according to Paul Shapiro of the Humane Society. But last year at Wyoming Premium Farms, five employees pled guilty to multiple counts of animal cruelty following the exposure of similar abuses.

Now, not every factory farm in the United States is sadistic or brutal, though the chances you’re getting pork from a place like this might be higher than you think. Wyoming Premium turned out to be a supplier for Tyson Foods. After public outrage erupted, Tyson quickly cut ties.

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